"Rae," he murmured and stepped closer.
He lifted his arms as if to embrace me. One more step would close the distance between us completely.
I was scared, so scared. I couldn't speak. There were no words or coherent thoughts in my head. It was a jumble of panic and cautious interest. Who was he? Was he another Cleric? Would he kill me now? Oh gods. I would become one of the faceless and nameless that went missing every year. To be forgotten as my body rotted or was left to become a demon dinner. I couldn't handle it, nor could my body functions manage the full-scale meltdown. My legs buckled and the world went a funny gray colour. I fainted, but told myself I didn't have time to faint, and came to in the next second. Not that my actions meant anything, or my revival is what stopped my ass hitting the ground. The boy darted forward so fast his body blurred, and something hard and invisible shunted into me. So hard it knocked the breath from my lungs. Pushed off centre, my legs flew up and the sky swung into view.
He'd caught me.
"Stop talking," he said. Then smiled.
I stared up at him dumbly. Was he making a joke? I hadn't said a word. In fact I think I'd forgotten to breathe since I saw him, and that's what caused my half fainting spell.
I shifted. My top rode up some and his fingers touched my back. Something hot and powerful invaded me. It charged through my body until every muscle was tense and straining, not pleasant after the baptism of ice and fire I'd been an intimate and unwilling subject of before. And then it was gone, dissipating into nothing. I relaxed so completely it felt like my bones had unhinged, and my muscles liquefied.
The boy's face was blank with shock. Had he felt the painful heat too? I hoped so, because I was sure it was his fault.
There was a fracas nearby, getting closer and louder. My heart did a good job of clambering into my throat and blocking my airway. The party hunting me crashed past and kept on going. The boy, who had crouched down with me on his knee whilst I had worked on breathing right, ducked his head down and tensed. I felt better because he too was barely breathing. My heart thundered and my thoughts raced. The bloodhounds were trained to follow the weakest of trails. Why didn't they smell me when my scent would have led them right to us? This brought me round to the daunting thought of how I got so far ahead, was able to roll around on the floor, and encounter a strange boy before they had caught up. Again, who was this boy, over whose arm and knee, I was draped? Not that it was uncomfortable, but he'd put his hands on me so easily, and held me close and it feltgood. The shock had me relaxing and looking down at his hands. They were big, hard and somehow elegant as they curled around me.
The hunting party passed out of sight and hearing range. My stomach unclenched, and my heart slid back down to rest uneasily in my chest. The boy remained as he was and peered into my face. My heart raced at how tall and how strong he was. Hair cut close to his head the general impression was hardness. A heavy top brow, and sharp cheekbones rested high on a sculpted face. His nose was the opposite of the distinctive aquiline bridge most boy Disciples had, and I liked it. His bold eyebrows and masculine lips added depth to a face that needed no flattering. The scent of soil and sunlight reached me as I watched his silver eyes flick from my face, to the leather cord at my neck.
"We've been looking for you," he said.
The first words I'd spoken all day were, "Nobody looks for me, and how do you know my name?" Taken aback by the feeble quality of my own voice, I lifted my chin and added some gusto. "I mean, put me down. Now."
He did no such thing and he did not answer my question. But he did smile again, and what a spectacular show it was. His body was heavy and hot. Through the fabric of my clothes I felt the hard lines of him, and the slow thump of his heart over mine. Without thinking, I reached to touch his jaw and it felt like strength. My fingertips glided over a raised slash of skin, and a quick tug tilted his head so I could see more of his profile. I traced a scar following the line of his jaw, curving up to his cheekbone. The skin was puckered, rough. His eyes met mine and I shrugged, the scar made him real to me. I snaked my hands up his bare, solid shoulders and jumped off him so I stood on my own two feet.
I knew without a shadow of doubt this boy would rather die than hurt me.
"Rae," he said softly. I shivered from silky soft calling of my name, but then he finished with, "My name is Breandan, and you are mine."
My whole body jolted. Then my startled laugh broke the short silence. Needing space to think and breathe, I pushed away from him.
"In your dreams," I said and spun around.
I tried to pin down a direction to run toward. I realized at that moment my solution was downright silly and ineffective. See bad, scary or confusing thing, turn and run from bad, scary or confusing thing until you bump into another bad, scary or confusing thing. I was getting nowhere fast.
"You wouldn't say such a thing if you knew the truth. And since I saw you first you have to be mine. The white witch was right, and now I'll never hear the end of it. I didn't think you would come out here so soon and so freely. I tried to ignore you, even when you got lost, but when I heard you running away from them I had to help. They would have caught you."
I'd stopped moving in the middle of this rationalization. His voice was awfully attractive. I could never describe how it sounded because it would only ever sound perfect to me, and no one else. Once I'd gotten past hearing the words I thought over the meaning. In delayed reaction my chest puffed out and I bristled.
"The hell I do. People don't belong to one another, and I certainly do not belong to you, even if you did see me firstwhatever that means. What stupid-"
He moved closer then I could see nothing but his eyes again. Mouth suddenly dry, I was unable to finish my scathing rebuttal, and it took a moment to un-stick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. A warm rolling sensation formed in the pit of my stomach and lodged there. It was an odd sensation, it even hurt a little, but it was a nice pain. I breathed in deeply through my nose and expelled the breath through my mouth. The whole deep breathing thing was helping.
"Okay then, Breandan," I said serenely but my heart thumped too hard and he coked his head as if he could hear it. I went on nonetheless, "What do you want? Why are you in the forest, alone?" The best defense is a good offence, and I could give as good as I got. "This is demon territory y'know. I can admit I was freaked and a bit off course." He snorted a laugh and my temper bloated into righteous indignation. "It's dark out here. I was running away from the Clerics because they had dogs." My eyes darted to and from his now, uncomfortable with the lie. "And Idon't like dogs. They bark. Loudly. And how do you know my name?"
There was a beat of silence as his eyes held mine. "You will have to get out of the habit of lying. You won't be able to do that for much longer. And anyway, you don't have to explain anything to me. I understand. I know you, and that is why we have come for you."
"Are you from the slums?"
For a bad moment there I had assumed he was from the Sect. I would be in a world trouble if anyone saw me out here. I was beyond the Wall, which was forbidden, and I had seen I didn't want to think about the horror I'd seen, and how I'd been foolish enough to get caught seeing the thing I saw. I had disobeyed a direct order from a Cleric, something I, a Disciple training to be a Cleric, should never do. No, I was not so sure anymore. If Breandan was from the Sect he'd have called to the Clerics, not hidden me from them. If he was a civilian, I didn't see how he could come to be lost Outside. After all, you would have to get past the Wall to make it out here. There was not a human alive that didn't understand the dangers of going over the Wall and into demon territory.